DO LIFESTYLE AND NUTRITION KNOWLEDGE AFFECT CONSUMERS CHOICE OF DIFFERENT FUNCTIONAL FOOD CATEGORIES? A quantitative study among German consumers.

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1 DO LIFESTYLE AND NUTRITION KNOWLEDGE AFFECT CONSUMERS CHOICE OF DIFFERENT FUNCTIONAL FOOD CATEGORIES? A quantitative study among German consumers. MASTER THESIS EXPOSÉ Meri Rizzonelli EMBS 10

2 Exposé Rizzonelli Meri EMBS10 1 Abstract Title: Do lifestyle and nutrition knowledge affect consumers choice of different functional food categories? A quantitative study among German consumers. Keywords: functional foods; lifestyle; nutrition knowledge; German consumers; Background: In the last decades, the concept of functional foods has become more popular, as people expect food to help them improve or maintain their health. Therefore, many studies have been done in order to understand consumers perceptions and motivations behind functional food consumption. The factors influencing consumers to buy functional foods are many: demographics, perceived healthiness, combination of carrier and enrichment, taste, and lifestyle are just the most important and investigated. It also emerged that functional foods have a controversial double face: if from one point of view they could be a helpful innovation for keeping people healthy, from the other people may consider functional foods as a panacea for all their problems. It is also important to underline that functional foods are not only healthy products; indeed, there are nutritionally poor products that, since they are enriched with some functional ingredient, are regarded as functional. It follows that consumers may be misled by the health claims of the products and may consider unhealthy foods as healthy. Furthermore, consumers may justify the consumption of unhealthy foods just because they are functionally modified. Purpose: This study will analyze whether nutrion knowledge and lifestyle affect consumers choice of functional foods. Nutrition knowledge plays an important role in helping people understand which products should be regarded as healthy and which should not. Lifestyle is an important predictor of actual behavior, which is healthy functional food consumption. Indeed, even though nutrition knowledge is a necessary factor for healthy food choices is not a sufficient one. Methodology: To answer the research question, a quantitative study will be developed. Data will be collected through an online questionnaire that will test respondents nutrition knowledge, define their lifestyle and their consumption of different categories of functional foods. The analysis will focus only on one European country which is Germany. This is because Germany is one of the biggest functional foods markets and it has been proven that interest toward functional foods is higher in the central and northern European countries than in the Mediterranean ones.

3 Exposé Rizzonelli Meri EMBS10 2 Table of Contents ABSTRACT. 1 TABLE OF CONTENTS... 2 LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS 3 INTRODUCTION.. 4 Background... 4 Problem Statement and Purpose... 6 LITERATURE REVIEW... 8 Demographic and Cultural Factors 8 Consumers Attitudes and Perceptions toward Functional Foods.. 10 Motivations for Functional Foods Consumption RESEARCH QUESTION THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK AND HYPOTHESIS 16 Nutrition Knowledge. 16 Lifestyle. 18 METHODOLOGY.. 19 OVERVIEW OF CHAPTERS WORKPLAN BIBLIOGRAPHY 23

4 Exposé Rizzonelli Meri EMBS10 3 List of Abbreviations FF Functional Food FFs Functional Foods FOSHU Foods for Specified Health Use EU European Union

5 Exposé Rizzonelli Meri EMBS10 4 Introduction Let food be thy medicine and medicine be thy food. - Hippocrates Background In the last decades, the concept of food has changed because people do not see food as a way to satisfy their hunger anymore; instead, they expect food to provide them with those nutrients necessary to improve or maintain their health. Indeed, trends like the continuous ageing of the population and the increasing cost of health care have made consumers more conscious about what they eat (de Jong, Ocke, Branderhorst, & Friele, 2003). In this context, the notion of FFs has become more popular among consumers. This term was introduced in Japan in the 1980s to define those foods that were fortified with special ingredients in order to provide physiological benefits (Lau, Chan, Tan, & Kwek, 2012). In 1991, a specific label, FOSHU, was introduced in Japan for clearly identifying FFs. Later, this concept spread out to the U.S., Canada, China and Europe. Since then, the FF market has been growing at a fast pace and new global estimations predict that it will be worth $192 billion by 2020 (Kaur & Singh, 2017). However, it is not easy to calculate the right dimension of this market, because it is challenging to clearly define which products should be considered and which not. Indeed, FFs are not an homogeneous category as they are spread throughout different food and beverage segments (Siro, Kàpolna, Kàpolna, & Lugasi, 2008). Besides, there is not a unanimous definition; definitions range from the simple ones like food that may provide health benefits beyond basic nutrition to more complex such as food similar in appearance to conventional food, that is intended to be consumed as part of the normal diet, but has been modified to sub serve physiological roles beyond the provision of simple nutrient requirements (Bech-Larsen & Grunert, 2003, p. 9). A more exhaustive definition is the one from Diplock, Aggett, Ashwell, Bornet, Fern & Roberfroid (1999, p. S27): A food can be regarded as functional if it is satisfactorily demonstrated to affect beneficially one or more target functions in the body, beyond adequate nutritional effects, in a way that is relevant to either improved stage of health and well-being, and/or reduction of risk of disease. A functional food must remain food and it must demonstrate its effects in amounts that can normally be expected to be consumed in the diet: it is not a pill or a capsule, but part of the normal food pattern.

6 Exposé Rizzonelli Meri EMBS10 5 From this definition, it is possible to infer that a FF has to either improve the general condition of the body or decrease the risk of some disease. This notion states what FFs have to do in order to be defined so but it does not describe their composition. In this context, Spence (2006) proposed the following classification: - natural products: fruits and vegetables that inherently have healthy components; - fortified products: products fortified with additional nutrients (e.g. fruit juices with additional vitamin C); - enriched products: food with added components that normally are not found in a particular food (e.g. margarine with plant sterol ester, probiotics, prebiotics); - altered products: food from which deleterious component(s) have been removed, reduced or replaced (e.g. fat-free products); - enhanced commodities: food where one component has been naturally enhanced through certain procedures such as new feed composition or genetic manipulation (e.g. eggs with increased omega-3). This classification shows how wide can be the range of FFs and how blurred can be the line between functional and conventional foods. In order to clarify the situation and avoid consumers from being misled, the EU approved a Regulation in 2006 (No. 1924/2006). In order to be defined as functional the food should be in the form of normal food and it must prove its efficacy when consumed in the amounts of a normal diet. Moreover, the European Food Safety Authority will indicate those nutrient, substance or food that can be defined as functional according to the scientific evidence of their benefits. Of course, new or old components can be added or removed according to new emerging evidences. Despite this regulation, there is no food label that distinguish functional food from conventional food and therefore the situation can still be confusing (Annunziata & Vecchio, 2011). Given the growing importance of this category it is logical that many researches have focused on investigating different aspects of this phenomena. The first papers examined consumers acceptance of FFs as well as their attitudes and perceptions. In particular, Urala & Lähteenmäki (2003) discovered that the reason behind FFs consumption differed among product categories. This means that FFs are not seen as a homogeneous group but are considered as part of the

7 Exposé Rizzonelli Meri EMBS10 6 particular food category to which they belong (Lähteenmäki et al., 2010). The factors influencing consumers to buy a FF instead of another are many: demographics, perceived healthiness, combination of carrier and enrichment, taste, and lifestyle are just the most important and investigated. All these studies offer interesting insights and give the base for further investigations. In particular, it was proven that lifestyle has an impact on motivation for buying different food categories (Brečić, Gorton, & Barjolle, 2014; Chen, 2011; Cornish, 2012). From these findings, it follows that some consumers may consume FFs as a complement to their health, while others may rely on them as a quick-fix to their poor eating habits. This controversial double-face that FFs have was also discussed by Spence (2006), who made an important consideration: if from one point of view, FFs may increase the intake of some particular nutrients, from the other they may lead to a reduced variety in the diet. For example, if one person drinks juice with added vitamin C, he or she may not feel the need to consume a lot of fresh fruit. Following this path, Cornish (2012, p. 293) supposes that some consumers are likely to consume functional foods as alternative to other healthy but aesthetically unpleasing or less convenient foods such as fruits and vegetables. She then goes on speculating that, according to the justification theory, the functional aspect of the food may justify its consumption. In the light of this, consumers might choose a nutritionally poor functional food just because the package states that it has lots of fibers and that they are good for your health. Problem Statement and Purpose The discussion above shows that FFs belong to many categories of food and that despite the European regulation introduced in 2006 the line between conventional food and functional one is still blurred and may confuse consumers. Consequently, consumers might be misled by health claims and make poor food choice, or might justify the purchase of something nutritionally poor by the functional aspect of the product. Therefore, the purpose of this study will be to analyze the link between FF categories consumption and both consumer s lifestyle and nutrition knowledge. The reason for analyzing these two variables is because nutrition knowledge is necessary for consumers to understand the healthiness of the products they buy whereas lifestyle is fundamental for consumers to actually buy them. The ultimate aim is to show the importance of a further regulation about FFs and a stricter selection of those products that can be regarded as functional. Indeed, in order to better clarify this market a food label would be useful, as it has already been suggested

8 Exposé Rizzonelli Meri EMBS10 7 by Annunziata and Vecchio (2011). The results should shed light on whether there is an effective link between FF consumption, consumers nutrition knowledge and lifestyle. Moreover, the combination of the cited factors should determine different clusters of consumer and give managerial implication about marketing segmentation of different FF categories.

9 Exposé Rizzonelli Meri EMBS10 8 Literature Review The doctors of the future will no longer treat the human frame with drugs, but rather will cure and prevent disease with nutrition. -Thomas Edison This section will expose and analyze the main findings that previous studies have discovered about the FF topic. Indeed, given the growing importance of this concept, many researches have been developed with the purpose of examining different aspects of FFs consumption. The review will be divided in subparts; first, demographic and cultural factors will be discussed, then the perceptions and attitudes of consumers toward FFs will be presented and finally the motivations behind FFs consumption will be considered. The purpose of this chapter will be to give a general overview of the most important factors influencing FFs consumption that will set the base for the theoretical background. Demographic and Cultural Factors Despite many studies have been conducted to investigate the extent to which demographic factors influence consumption of FFs, there are no homogeneous results (Kaur & Singh, 2017). Generally, female have a more positive attitude toward FFs and are significantly more likely to purchase them (Brečić et al., 2014; Verbeke, 2005). Findings about age, however, are very discordant; some studies have proven that FFs consumption is related with older age (Siegrist, Stampfli, & Kastenholz, 2008; Vella, Stratton, Sheeshka, & Duncan, 2014; Verbeke, 2005), while others have proven that older people are less willing to buy FFs than younger people (Annunziata & Vecchio, 2010). However, differences in findings may depend on the characteristics of the product analyzed. As Vassallo (2009) proved, young consumers seem to be more interested in products with health promoting claims, while elderly people are more interested in disease prevention products. Indeed, as people get older, they might start being more aware of the possibility of getting sick and therefore might be more willing to buy specific products that have a disease prevention claim (Bornkessel, Bröring, Omta, & van Trijp, 2014). Two aspects on which findings are congruent regard education and income; indeed, higher education and higher income correlate positively with FFs consumption (Annunziata & Vecchio, 2010; Bornkessel et al., 2014; Brečić et al., 2014; Cox, Koster, & Russell, 2004; Goetzke & Spiller, 2014; Niva, 2007; Verbeke, 2005). The findings are also justified by the fact that FFs may have a price premium for their health claim and particular positioning and

10 Exposé Rizzonelli Meri EMBS10 9 therefore not everybody can allow them. Moreover, higher education may play an important role for the acceptance of FFs as it may help overcome food neophobia (Brečić et al., 2014). The previous discussion, shows that there is no general pattern related to demographics that can be used to predict FFs consumption. This is mainly due to the fact that motivation behind FFs consumption differ among food categories (Urala & Lähteenmäki, 2003) and therefore, there will be different consumers profiles accordingly. The extant literature has either examined consumers perceptions in one country or made a comparison in order to highlight possible cultural differences; the results proved that FFs are not considered equally across cultures. Indeed, the interest toward FFs is higher among northern and central European countries than Mediterranean ones (Annunziata & Vecchio, 2010). This can be explained by the different eating habits these countries have, with the Mediterranean diet on one side and a diet richer in animal fat and proteins on the other. In particular, Bech-Larsen and Grunert (2003) compared attitudes toward FFs of Finnish, Danish and American consumers; they discovered that Finnish people tend to be more positive toward these products than Americans and particularly than Danish respondents. However, when analyzing consumers perceptions related to the types of enrichments and processing methods, both Finnish and Danish respondents valued more negatively FFs that were genetically modified. Given the positive attitudes of the Finns, many studies have been carried out in this country (Niva, 2007; Urala & Lähteenmäki, 2003, 2004, 2007). A study focusing on Italian consumers (Annunziata & Vecchio, 2011) highlighted how Italians found the FFs concept confusing, often mistaking them with diet or light products (in another research from Annunziata and Vecchio (2010), 44% of the respondents was not able to give an example of FF). However, it was also proved how Italians have a deep awareness of the link between health and food and put a lot of interest in their food choice. This ambiguous finding can be explained by the different eating habits that Italians have compared to the Northern populations. In addition, opposing views emerged when analyzing consumers perceptions toward different carriers and enrichments. In the study made by Bech-Larsen and Grunert (2003), respondents seemed to justify more the modification of those foods that could benefit from it (e.g. spread) while they depreciated the enrichment of juice and yoghurt, because these products are perceived healthy per se (2003, p. 13) and therefore did not need to become functional.

11 Exposé Rizzonelli Meri EMBS10 10 On the contrary, Annunziata and Vecchio (2011) as well as Ares and Gàmbaro (2007) discovered that Italians in one case and Uruguayans in the second one perceived inherently healthy products as more credible carriers for FFs. Another factor that was found to be relevant for defining cultural differences is how much risky people consider FFs; indeed, one study (Dolgopolova, Teuber, & Bruschi, 2015) discovered how differently Germans and Russians trust FFs. Russians resulted to be more food neophobic while Germans displayed a higher level of trust. These findings increasingly prove that the concept of FFs changes among different countries; not only it is difficult to create a profile based on demographic variables but it is also challenging to determine a general framework where FFs can be placed. Furthermore, there are other factors playing an important role for the acceptance of FFs that relate mostly to the knowledge and beliefs of FFs and to the extrinsic and intrinsic characteristics of the product; these factors have been proven to outweigh the impact of sociodemographic determinants on FFs acceptance (Verbeke, 2005). Consumers Attitudes and Perceptions toward Functional Foods With the purpose of better understanding consumer behavior regarding FFs, Urala and Lähteenmäki (2003, 2004, 2007) investigated the phenomena. In 2003, they were able to identify five concepts from which FFs consuption depends: perceived healthiness, taste and pleasure, security and familiarity, convenience and price. Basing themselves on these findings, in 2004, they developed a study in order to quantify consumers attitudes towards so-called functional foods and to find the underlying dimensions that can predict respondents willingness to use functional food products (2004, p. 794). The result was the creation of a scale with seven dimensions: perceived reward from using FFs, confidence in FFs, necessity with FFs, FFs as medicine, FFs as part of a healthy diet, risk related to FFs consumption and the role of taste. Willingness to consume FFs highly correlated with the perceived reward, meaning that people accept FFs only if they are sure of the benefits they give. In particular, a positive correlation was detected when considering FFs consumption and necessity for consuming them. From this, it can be possible to infer that consumers will use FFs, if they feel they need it to improve their health status and if they are certain of the efficacy of the products. Consequently, it is clear that trust and perceived risk play an important role. In this context, food neophobia can become a barrier to FFs consumption (Dolgopolova et al., 2015; Frewer,

12 Exposé Rizzonelli Meri EMBS10 11 Scholderer, & Lambert, 2003). However, if people are aware of the FFs concept and know the ingredient and their potential benefits on health, the effect of risk becomes almost irrelevant. Indeed, as Urala and Lähteenmäki (2004) showed, even though consumers consider the risks associated with FFs consumption, it does not affect their willingness to consume them. These, could be explained by the fact that FFs have been present in most of the European markets for almost twenty years, meaning that consumers have had the time to acknowledge this concept and build their trust at least toward the most common combinations of product and enrichment (Bornkessel et al., 2014; Krutulyte et al., 2011). In addition, a study done in Finland (Urala & Lähteenmäki, 2007) reported how FFs seem to approach a status of convetionally healthy foods. Taste is another dimension that needs to be addressed as it is an important determinant of food choice (Verbeke, 2005). Some authors (Menezes, Deliza, Chan, & Guinard, 2011; Verbeke, 2005) demonstrated that consumers are not willing to compromise on taste even when it comes to buy FFs. However, such position becomes weaker when people with a high general health interest are interviewed. Similar results were discovered by Urala and Lähteenmäki (2004) who showed that, if the FF is related to a strong health message, consumers tend to be more flexible about taste. On the other hand, Krutulyte et al. (2011) found no relation between willingness to buy and taste proving that probably consumers perceptions may vary according to different FFs categories. These controversial results suggest that consumers willingness to compromise taste for health cannot be taken for granted. The fact that people s perceptions of FFs depend on the type of FFs has led researchers to investigate this field by testing different products. In particular, food carriers, ingredients and the possible combinations of the two were examined. As Lu (2015) and Krutulyte et al. (2011) showed, the perceived fit of ingredient and carrier is a strong determinant of purchase intentions. However, there are discrepancies about consumers evaluations of FFs combinations. Indeed, some studies discovered that people tend to justify more the enrichment of unhealthy foods, rather than healthy ones (Bech-Larsen & Grunert, 2003; Krutulyte et al., 2011); an explanation to this finding could be that naturally healthy foods do not need to be modified because they are already good, while unhealthy foods could benefit from the functional enrichments. On the other hand, others studies (Annunziata & Vecchio, 2011; Ares & Gàmbaro, 2007; Siegrist et

13 Exposé Rizzonelli Meri EMBS10 12 al., 2008) showed that consumers are more willing to purchase FFs with a healthy carrier. In this case naturally healthy products are believed to carry more credible health claims. Regarding the possible combinations of carrier and enrichment, there are findings proving that there is a more positive perception of carrier-ingredient fit when the functional ingredient is naturally present in the carrier (e.g. fiber in rye bread, prebiotics in yogurt) (Ares & Gàmbaro, 2007; Krutulyte et al., 2011; Lu, 2015). This increases the perceived healthiness of the FF. As it was previously explained, from the definition of FFs it can be inferred that they can either have an enhanced function beneficial for health (e.g. improves the cognitive performance) or a disease preventive function that specifically reduces the risk of a disease condition (e.g. lowers cholesterol). Consequently, some researches have been developed in order to understand whether different health claims are perceived equally or whether there are some health claims that correlate more positively with the purchase intensions. Accordingly, many studies (Siegrist et al., 2008; van Kleef, van Trijp, & Luning, 2005) have proved that consumers tend to prefer those health claims that relate to a specific disease prevention. In the same context, it was also investigated whether there are some product-health claim combinations that work better than others. In this case, however, there are no unanimous results: van Kleef et al. (2005) proved that consumers perceived the health claim independently from the carrier while Siegrist et al. (2008) and Ares and Gàmbaro (2007) found a correlation between health claim and carrier, suggesting that particular attention should be given to the designing of the product, and that findings about one product should be cautiously applied to other ones. The picture that emerges from this discussion is that consumers perceptions about FFs are not homogeneous; this could be justified by the fact that FFs are not seen as a unique category but they are considered as part of the different food category to which they belong; consequently, perceptions vary according to the category that has been examined. Since there are many findings that contrast with each other, it cannot be possible to generalize and apply them to the entire FF category. The only possible solution is to take previous findings into consideration and test whether they work also in a different field.

14 Exposé Rizzonelli Meri EMBS10 13 Motivations for Functional Foods Consumption Another part of the literature focuses on the motives that make people consume FFs. Nutrition knowledge seems to be a good predictor of FFs consumption; some studies (Bornkessel et al., 2014; Lu, 2015), proved that people with a higher awareness of ingredients and FFs in general tend to be more willing to buy them. These findings connect to those of Urala and Lähteenmäki (2003, 2004, 2007) who showed that consumers who already know FFs, have a more positive perception of the product. Furthermore, two factors that have been investigated is the health status and health motivation of the respondents. Indeed, people who have a specific health problem should be more willing to buy a FF that as a related health claim and people who worry about their future health status should rely on FFs as a preventive method (Bornkessel et al., 2014). Health motivation proved to be a good predictor of FFs consumption (Bornkessel et al., 2014; Cranfield, Henson, & Masakure, 2011). In particular, Cranfield et al. (2011, p. 378) assumed that who perceive themselves as healthy make greater use of functional foods as a way of protecting their good health state but at the same time they acknowledged that there may also be a negative relationship between FFs consumption and health status. As Sirò (2008, p. 465) stated FFs provide consumers a modern way to follow a healthy lifestyle, which differs from the conventionally healthy diet defined by nutrition experts. For this reason, many authors have questioned whether FFs are used for integrating an already healthy diet or for conventionally adjusting an unhealthy one. In this context, the literature has developed the quick-fix concept (Brečić et al., 2014; Cornish, 2012; Niva, 2007) to explain how consumers may rely on the FFs property to improve their unhealthy lifestyle. About this, Brečić et al. (2014, p. 666) pointed out that [w]ith sedentary lifestyle so widespread in many developed countries (USDA, 2008), a danger is that functional foods appeal to those seeking a quick fix. In the light of this, Frewer (2003, p. 722) said, [o]ne wonders if people will increase their nonhealthy food choices if they feel they are buying in to healthy eating through the consumption of functional foods. From her qualitative research, Cornish (2012) discovered that consumers may not always consume FFs for the right motives; indeed, she supposed that some consumers are likely to consume functional foods as alternative to other healthy but aesthetically unpleasing or less convenient foods such as fruits and vegetables (2012, p. 293). Spence (2006) posed the same doubt, stating if from one point of view, functional foods may increase the intake of some particular nutrients, from the other they may lead to a reduced variety in the

15 Exposé Rizzonelli Meri EMBS10 14 diet. For example, if one person drinks juice with added vitamin C, he or she may not feel the need to consume a lot of fresh fruit. Given this controversial double-face that FFs have, it is necessary to further investigate the connection between consumers and FFs consumption. As it was discussed before, demographics are not helpful in understanding FFs consumption, as people with the same demographic profile may have different behaviors nonetheless; for this reason, some study have used the lifestyle concept explaining that it is more comprehensive than demographic characteristics (Goetzke & Spiller, 2014, p. 512). Chen (2011) investigated whether consumers attitudes toward FFs are influenced by lifestyle; his findings reported that although people with a healthy lifestyle have more confidence in FFs, they do not feel the necessity of consuming them. This means that people with unhealthy lifestyle consider FFs necessary to fix their poor diet. Goetzke & Spiller (2014) compared organic food consumers with FFs consumers in order to understand whether their approach to improve lifestyle and wellbeing differs; indeed, they found a link between organic food consumption and an active lifestyle on one side and FFs consumption and passive lifestyle on the other one. Another research tried to link consumers perception of FFs to lifestyle characteristics (smoking, alcohol consumption, vegetable and fiber intake, physical activity and subjective health) (de Jong et al., 2003); unfortunately, their results were unable to conclude that only health-conscious individuals take functional foods; neither ( ) that at risk groups take functional foods as a means to compensate for an unhealthy lifestyle (2003, p. 280).

16 Exposé Rizzonelli Meri EMBS10 15 Research Question The food you eat can be either the safest and most powerful form of medicine or the slowest form of poison. - Ann Wigmore Despite the different results reported in the literature review, it is clear that there are some important factors affecting FFs consumption. From the discussion, it can also be inferred that FFs can be used mainly for two different purposes: integrating a healthy lifestyle or compensate for an unhealthy one. It is also clear that FFs can be derived from nutritionally poor foods or from wholesome foods; moreover, there are different results regarding the way people perceive these two different products: some think that inherently healthy foods would be the best carriers for functional ingredients, while others believe that unhealthy foods would benefit more from a functional enrichment. Therefore, what emerges is that FFs have a controversial double-face: if from one point of view they could be a helpful innovation for keeping people healthy, from the other people may consider FFs as a panacea for all their problems. In the light of this, it is necessary to further investigate what are the factors that influence the purchase intentions of different categories of FFs and whether consumers can be profiled according to this differentiation. In particular, two factors will be considered: nutrion knowledge and lifestyle. First, as it has been said, nutrition knowledge seems to be an important factor in predicting FFs consumption. This variable has been analyzed only with perceptions toward FFs in general but it has never been used to differentiate between healthy FFs and nutritionally poor FFs. Lifestyle has been chosen because it is a good predictor of FFs consumption and its analysis could give interesting insights about consumers segmentation. Indeed, people with different lifestyles would have different motivations to consume FFs.

17 Exposé Rizzonelli Meri EMBS10 16 Theoretical Framework and Hypothesis Eating well is the most important act we can do to ensure health. - Mark Hyman In this section, the theoretical framework that is at the base of the investigation will be exposed. As it was previously explained the aim of this study is to test whether nutrition knowledge and lifestyle affect consumers choice of different FFs categories, by differentiating FF products according to their nutritional value. Along with the explanation of the two main variables examined, the hypothesis will be stated. Nutrition Knowledge Nutrition knowledge has been proved to be a controversial factor regarding healthy food choice; indeed, some studies have found no significant correlation between nutrition knowledge and healthy food choice (Parmenter & Wardle, 1999), whereas others have found a positive correlation (Spronk, Kullen, Burdon, & O Connor, 2014; Wardle, Parmenter, & Waller, 2000). The reason for this discrepancy could depend on how the studies have been developed; as Wardle et al. (2000) suggested, it may be that some studies estimated nutrition knowledge with unreliable instruments. Also, other authors (Grunert, Wills, & Fernández- Celemín, 2010, p. 177) pointed out that many studies are based on self-reported retrospective behaviors, which can lead to considerable over reporting with regard to behaviors that are regarded as socially desirable. To fully understand this concept, it must be analyzed together with behaviors (Drichoutis, Lazaridis, & Nayga, 2017; Grunert & Wills, 2007; Grunert et al., 2010); the most used behavior linked to nutrition knowledge is the use of food labels. Indeed, food labels have been introduced in order to help people understand food composition and encourage them to make better food choices (Grunert et al., 2010). Studies that have investigated this connection, found that nutrition knowledge is an important prerequisite for food label understanding and therefore for making better food choices (Carrillo, Varela, & Fiszman, 2012; Drichoutis et al., 2017; Grunert et al., 2010). Moreover, it has been highlighted how nutrition knowledge may enable consumers to pay attention to important information on a food label, and to ignore marketing features that do not reflect salient nutritional qualities (Miller & Cassady, 2015, p. 208).

18 Exposé Rizzonelli Meri EMBS10 17 Yet, a study (Roe et al., 1999) discovered that the presence of health claims reduces information search, since health claims create an expectation about the product nutritional contribution. For this reason, the following hypothesis have been developed: H1: It is expected that nutrition knowledge will have an impact on how people perceive the healthiness of different FFs. In particular, H1a: People with a higher nutrition knowledge will use food labels in order to differentiate between nutritionally poor and wholesome FFs. H1b: People with a lower nutrion knowledge will regard FFs as healthy because of their health claim and independently of their composition. However, it must also be considered that nutrition knowledge is a necessary but not sufficient factor for healthy food choices (Worsley, 2002). As Grunert et al. (2010) showed, the understanding of food labels is much higher than the usage. What resulted from the literature reviews of the topic (Grunert & Wills, 2007; Miller & Cassady, 2015) is that, despite the understanding of the link between health and food that consumers have, they may not always be interested in healthy eating or using food labels. Indeed, the degree of interest depends on situations and food categories; in this context, research has proven that consumers are less interested in nutrition information for indulgent products (Grunert et al., 2010). This concept could illustrate why some consumers justify more the enrichment of an unhealthy product rather than a healthy one (Bech-Larsen & Grunert, 2003). According to Cornish (2012, p. 294), the reason can be explained by the justification theory; indeed, the functional ingredient contained in a nutritionally poor carrier, would justify its consumption, shifting focus from unhealthy but appetizing aspects (e.g., chocolate in breakfast cereal) to healthier aspects (e.g., added wholegrain in the cereal). In the light of this, consumers with a high nutrion knowledge, who are unwilling to give up guilty pleasures may find the solution in nutritionally poor FFs, as they would be able to justify this unhealthy consumption by the presence of the functional ingredient. H2: People with a higher nutrion knowledge should prefer nutritionally poor FFs to their normal counterpart. Still, it is clear that nutrition knowledge cannot be an exhaustive factor for explaining FFs consumption. As Grunert et al. (2010, p. 187) suggested when talking about food labels, usage is a question of interest in healthy eating, whereas understanding is a question of nutrition

19 Exposé Rizzonelli Meri EMBS10 18 knowledge. This inconsistency between knowledge and behavior can be explained by the intention-behavior gap (Ajzen, 2015). For this reason, it is necessary to investigate also people s behavior. To fulfill this purpose the concept of lifestyle will be used. Lifestyle As it was previously discussed, some studies have used the lifestyle concept for investigating consumers behaviors; measuring lifestyle can be more effective, given the fact that it is a comprehensive dimension (Goetzke & Spiller, 2014). In this study, lifestyle will be used as the independent variable. Indeed, from the discussion about nutrition knowledge, it follows that knowledge is not a sufficient factor even though it is a necessary one for healthy food choices. For this reason, H3: People with a healthy lifestyle also have a high nutrition knowledge Moreover, by linking H1a and H2, it can be inferred that H4: A person with a high nutrition knowledge and a healthy lifestyle, consume healthy FFs as a way to integrate their health status. As Chen (2011) discovered, people with a healthy lifestyle may not feel the necessity for consuming FFs, probably because they already follow some eating and life pattern that help them maintain their health. Similar findings were proven also by Brečić et al. (2014, p. 669) who stated that FFs appeal more to those that want quick and easy means to improve or protect their health. To further prove this concept, Cornish (2012) suggested how, usually, unhealthy eating is accompanied by guilt. For this reason, consumers experiencing guilt for their consumption of unhealthy foods, may rely on FFs to compensate for such behavior. Therefore, it follows that, H5: People with an unhealthy lifestyle try to compensate for it by consuming more FFs.

20 Exposé Rizzonelli Meri EMBS10 19 Methodology When diet is wrong medicine is of no use. When diet is correct medicine is of no need - Ayurvedic proverb This chapter will present the methodology applied to this study. In order to test the hypothesis, a quantitative study will be developed. The data will be collected with an online, self-administered questionnaire that will be distributed through social media. The questionnaire will be created with an online software (Sphinx) and will be ready by the third week of November. According to the work plan, data collection will last three weeks but, of course, the duration will depend on the response rate. The structure of the questionnaire will be divided into three parts; The first part will show respondents different types of FFs; since the purpose of the study is to test how nutrition knowledge and lifestyle affect consumers choice of different FFs categories, the FFs used will belong to different categories and will be both healthy and not; each product will have a short description indicating the carrier and the functional ingredient with the health claim (e.g. spread with plant sterol that lower cholesterol). Moreover, for each product, a nutrition label will be displayed. Finally, each respondent will be asked to state whether and how frequently they consume the product. In case they do not consume it, they will be asked whether they would be willing to try it. There will also be a question asking whether they prefer the functional product to its normal counterpart. The second part is going to measure respondents nutrition knowledge; this part will be based on the Nutrition Knowledge Questionnaire (NKQ) developed by Parmenter and Wardle (1999). However, as Carrillo et al. (2012) and Grunert et al. (Grunert et al., 2010) have done, only some questions will be used. The reason for this selection is to reduce the time needed to complete the questionnaire. The third part will focus on respondents lifestyle. This part will be inspired to the survey created by Chen (2011). In particular, he used two scales: the Health Consciousness scale by Ophuis (1989) and the Healthy Lifestyle Scale developed by Gil, Gracia and Sanchez (2000). The first scale will be used to measure to which extent respondents are ready to promote better health while the second one will be used to measure respondents actual behavior. Finally, some demographic questions will be asked in order to create a respondent profile.

21 Exposé Rizzonelli Meri EMBS10 20 From the literature review it emerged that FFs are not equally perceived among different countries. For this reason, the research will be focused only in one country: Germany. This choice is based mainly on two reasons: first, Germany is one of the biggest markets for FFs (Germany Trade & Invest, 2016) meaning that it should offer a higher variety of FF products; second, since Germany is part of central/northern Europe, interest in FFs is higher than in southern countries. As it was previously discussed (Annunziata & Vecchio, 2010; Menrad, 2003), the different eating habits that characterize these main two areas have an impact on FFs perception and consumption.

22 Exposé Rizzonelli Meri EMBS10 21 Overview of Chapters 1. Introduction: a. introduce the research by giving the definition of FFs as well as briefly describing what and why has been investigated; b. problem statement and the purpose of the study: what and why will be examined and what are the expected results; 2. Literature review of the main findings divided by: a. Demographic and cultural factors b. Consumers attitudes and perceptions toward FFs; c. Motivations for FFs consumption; 3. Research question: brief description of the research gap and explanation of the study; 4. Theoretical framework and hypothesis: description of the variables that will be examined and hypothesis statement a. Nutrion knowledge b. Lifestyle 5. Methodology a. Research design b. Sample description c. Data collection d. Explanation of the statistical method applied 6. Data analysis: explanation of the analysis applied to the data and description of the results a. Descriptive analysis b. Statistical analysis and test of the hypothesis 7. Discussion & conclusion: a. Conclusion b. Limitations c. Managerial implications d. Suggestion for future research 8. Bibliography 9. Appendix

23 Exposé Rizzonelli Meri EMBS10 22 Work Plan DATE TASK DESCRIPTION STATE 01/09/ /10/2017 Exposé Find thesis topic and develop the focus of the study Literature review Development of the theoretical framework and hypothesis Handing in exposé 24/10/ /11/2017 Research design Design of the questionnaire Start using the statistical analysis software 13/11/ /12/2017 Launch of the questionnaire Launch of the survey Revise possible remarks about the exposé Learn to use the statistical analysis software 04/12/ /12/2017 Data analysis Data analysis Writing chapters about results and discussion 22/12/ /01/2018 Break Christmas Holidays Eventually, this time can be used to extend the previous phase if needed 03/01/ /01/2018 Final thesis Writing conclusions chapter Handing in the final thesis

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